HOME (formerly the Greater Manchester Arts Centre)

In partnership with the hugely talented team at O Street in Glasgow we were lucky enough in 2012 to help create the new name and identity of HOME, the £20m contemporary arts centre for Manchester emerging out of the fusion of the Cornerhouse and Library Theatre Company.

Through workshops, film, interviews and research we identified the 'essence' of the new organisation in 'The Play of Ideas' and we worked through a series of naming shortlists that, eventually, led to the preferred new name of HOME.

We spoke in total to 150 people who informed the identity and helped O Street to shape their visual rendering of it; we discovered that regardless of age, gender or background, there were so many emotions and feelings and opinions shared across different audience groups. “This is a second home to me,” said many of the workshop attendees; and this resonant and repeated refrain was what led us to the naming option that, in the end, was chosen.

The city’s Creative Director, Peter Saville, described the new name to us as ‘disarmingly casual’ because you will arrive, it will feel familiar and you will feel that you belong and then, as your guard is down, the Play of Ideas will hit you, and you’ll be forced to think again about the world and your place in it.